Franklin

Dean College in Franklin and the owners of the New England Patriots and New England Revolution are creating a program that will give students access to the team's executives and operations as part of their education.

InSite Wireless Group has acquired 294 communication tower sites from CTI Towers of Franklin.

Wind River Environmental, a group of septic services companies based in Hudson, has bought a similar company in Pennsylvania that will boost business about 30 percent, Wind River's co-founder and top executive said Friday.

A Franklin developer of speech recognition technology has completed its acquisition of a research and technology program from A&T that it says will help make speech recognition more accurate.

Business thrives on data. But it needs special software to help go behind the data to react to changing customer demand and stay competitive. That's where Franklin-based Saylent Technologies comes in for financial institutions, as a provider of data analytics software and services.

Several banks and a credit union with operations in to Central Massachusetts have been honored by the state's office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for lending to businesses during the 2014 federal fiscal year, the federal agency announced.

Independent Bank Corp., the parent of Rockland Trust Co. which operates branches in Bellingham, Franklin and Milford, reported third-quarter net income of $15.7 million.

Data-storage giant EMC Corp. of Hopkinton held merger talks with technology giants Hewlett-Packard and Dell within the last year as it faced pressure from shareholders, The Wall Street Journal reported today. The Journal said EMC held on-again, off-again discussions with officials from Hewlett-Packard and, while those talks appear to be off now, it's not clear whether they will begin again. As for Dell, the WSJ cited people familiar with talks between the two firms, adding that it's not clear what the status of those talks are.

The real estate arm of America's largest mutual life insurance company purchased warehouses in Northborough and Franklin for $50.54 million. Deed records indicate that Reep-Ind, affiliated with New York Life Real Estate Investors, bought the fully occupied buildings at 55 Lyman St. in Northborough and 20 Freedom Way in Franklin on July 24 from The Realty Associates Fund, an affiliate of Boston-based TA Associates Realty.

With Massachusetts seemingly ready to roll the dice, Plainville and the Interstate 495 south area are suddenly poised to become the state's de facto capital for Las Vegas-style gambling. When Penn National's Plainridge Park opens next spring, it will enjoy a gambling monopoly in Massachusetts that could last — at least in the eastern half of the state — for two or three years, local officials and gambling industry experts say.